A breeze tousled his hair, and fey light streamed down from the flawless sky. Anticipation made his stomach taut.
“A shadow clings to that ridge,” Japheth said.
Raidon followed the warlock’s gesture, through a succulent green valley illuminated with sunlight. A steep rise, bare of vegetation, formed the far side of the valley’s bowl.
His spellscar pulsed in that direction.
“That’s the way we need to go,” Raidon said.
“I concur,” said Japheth. “Malyanna passed this way … but some time ago. It almost seems she came from the direction we go, but did not return this way. Yet, my connection to the power we share places her beyond that rise.”
They hurried through the valley, jumping across a clear brook that wandered the valley’s trough, then ascended the rise. On the lower slope, grass and a few trees struggled to gain a foothold. The vegetation failed completely as they ascended.
On the other side of the bare knob of stone, the land fell away into dimness. A cold air blew from that direction, and it smelled of endings.
“Of course. I should’ve guessed our path would be the one clogged with darkness and dread,” said Japheth.
“What, you expected a castle made of confection and honey?” replied Raidon.
The warlock laughed. “If you know of a place like that, I wouldn’t mind a rest! I’ve got a sweet tooth,” he said.
“Only in the stories I once told my daughter,” said Raidon.
“I imagine, somewhere in the world or one of its echoes, such a place exists,” Japheth said. “If we get through this, I’m going to try and find it.”
“A quest without consequences for failure? I think I’ll join you,” said the monk.
Both men plunged down the other side, into the gloom that lay beyond. They walked into a tableau of bare rock, jagged boulders, and half-dead scrub grass. The farther they went, the darker it became.
Raidon glanced back once and saw the glow of Faerie still gleamed behind them on the horizon. Something caught in his throat.
A presentiment stole over him-a whispering certainty that he’d never walk in that golden light again.
“What is it?” said Japheth.
The monk glanced at his companion. The warlock’s cloak made him hard to pick out against the black sky.
“Nothing,” Raidon said. “Just resting. I think we’re close.”
“Taal explained that Malyanna was some sort of guardian at the edge of the world,” said Japheth.
“A guardian?” said Raidon.
“She was co-opted,” replied the warlock. “Do you suppose the other guardians were also compromised, or she’s working alone?”
“We’ll know soon enough,” Raidon said.
They pressed onward. Raidon wondered at the lack of animal life, so close to Faerie. Not even a single snake, fox, or a crow had crossed over. Or if any had, they hid themselves from him and Japheth.
Hours later, a row of lights appeared on the horizon. Raidon pointed them out to Japheth.
The warlock grunted in acknowledgment.
The tiny lights resolved as they approached, and revealed themselves as beacon fires. The fires glittered from the tops of tall towers constructed at the edge of a rocky rise. The towers were delicate yet sturdy, and each one was surrounded by an outer wall and ward.
A tower near one edge of the line had toppled forward across the rocky plain, smashing through its own retaining wall. Its cylindrical stone shell was broken into rubble.
A vast darkness swirled beyond the towers. It was a void shot through with faint stars and the occasional flare of red light that brought a slight chill to Raidon’s spellscar.
“This is it. Forever’s Edge,” said the monk. He pulled his silk shirt tighter around him against the cold.
“Is your symbol telling you anything else?” Japheth asked.
“No.”
They approached the central, largest spire.
Despite the high wall and thick gate, they heard voices yelling out orders and questions, the sound of hooves on stone, blares of horns, and occasional cursing in a variety of languages. Noises like stone banging on stone, metal on metal, and less identifiable sounds skipped across the rock.
“Sounds like cavalry preparing for a sortie,” Raidon said.
“All for us?” said Japheth.
Raidon glanced to the farther towers. Moving lights on the tops of the walls, surging beacon fires, and the occasional flicker as something passed in front of a light told a tale of similar activity.
“Seems unlikely-unless your pact is far more dangerous than you let on,” Raidon said.
“Hmmph,” replied Japheth.
“But they have noticed us,” said the half-elf, gesturing.
Several eladrin on horseback issued from a side gate and approached them along the wall. Some wielded swords, others bows, one a lance. All were caparisoned in silvery mithral greaves and hauberks. Their panoply reminded Raidon of the knights he’d seen in Stardeep. What had they been called …?
Empyrean Knights. Those in Stardeep had ultimately been betrayed by their leader. Was the same true for these?
The lead knight didn’t quite point her lance at Raidon. “Name yourselves and your purpose!” she said.
“We seek Malyanna,” replied the monk.
The knight blinked. “What’s your business with the Lady of Winter’s Peace?” she said. “I don’t recognize either of you.”
Raidon considered the knight, wondering if she was in Malyanna’s power already.
Before he could decide, the knight gave a single nod at the toppled tower. “I’m sorry to give you the bad news,” she said. “Spire of Winter’s Peace fell in the attack. Lady Malyanna is missing.”
“Attack?” Raidon asked.
Before the leader could respond, one of the other knights called up. “These two strangers arrive suspiciously close to the assault,” he said. “What if they’re here to take advantage of the distraction?”
“Nonsense,” said Raidon in a loud voice. “We are foes of abominations and aberrations! We arrive now only because dark forces are on the move, goaded by their new priestess. I hope you are, and remain, foes of that which lies outside the natural order too.”
“You hope we …?” called the knight. “Don’t be foolish, it is our ancient charter!”
“I’m glad,” Raidon said. “But a traitor is among you.”
“He seeks to turn us against each other!” said a knight.
“No. I seek to open your eyes. The traitor is Malyanna.”
Several of the knights exclaimed with angry curses. Japheth swirled his cloak defensively.
“It was she who was probably responsible for your ‘attack’!” yelled Raidon.
“Stop your prattle, human,” said the woman. “You don’t know of what you speak, here on the Edge.”
A thread of anger heated Raidon’s reply. “Do I not?” he said. “Then why do I suspect that if you can’t find Malyanna, it is because she is already on her way to a place called the Far Manifold.”
“A mortal creature can’t open the Far Manifold,” the woman said, her eyes narrowing as she spoke.
The knights began to form up behind the woman in the lead, drawing their lances down their line. Japheth glanced at Raidon. The monk could tell his companion was on the edge of violence, or perhaps a quick retreat.
Raidon tried again. “Listen to me,” he said. “Malyanna has retrieved the Key of Stars from Faerun! With it, a mortal can indeed open that bleak gate, and she intends to try! Then the lords that the Eldest aboleth in Xxiphu serves will be free to enter existence, and erase it.”
“You’re either insane, or more likely, agents of the aboleths yourselves,” the lead knight said. She took her signal horn from her belt and prepared to sound it.
“Would a foe from the Sovereignty bear this?” Raidon said, pulling open his silk shirt and baring the Cerulean Sign. A purifying light bloomed in its simple lines and washed across the ground until it enveloped the knights, the gate, and a portion of the outer wall.